BUYING INFO ON PROVINCES

[Strategos]

BUYING INFO ON PROVINCES

Know all about spies and scouts in DOM1, but.....

can this be simply yet elegantly refined to add more depth to army composition, unit types etc etc.

EG before you attack anyone, you gather intelligence on a variety of subjects....terrain, army, units leaders etc etc.

This determines your force mix....one of the strong points of DOM is its vast array of units from heavy to light, infantry, cavalry etc etc.

It would be more realistic to see a distinct connection between army composition and the task at hand eg conquering a province, defending, patrolling....

Say invading a province: if you had better info on terrain (supposing terrain & vegetation does have an effect on combat) you could choose primarily cavalry or infantry or missile troops suited to the objective

Your scout could be tasked to gather geographical, unit, leadert etc info.

Scout could enter a "Tavern" where this info is bought (war is expensive!)

Conversely, there could be higher penalties for not taking the trouble to gather info

PS: On leaders, this info could be the basis to bribe them or not!

[MStavros]

I love this idea. I think it should not be hard to add.

[Taqwus]

Some information about army disposition wouldn't be a bad thing. In addition to task ("this army appears to be patrolling"... caveat: you can't get information like "this army appears to be tearing down its camp and getting ready to move" since by the time the report comes it would already have moved. On the other hand, "these forces moved to..." would be reasonable, assuming non-stealthy forces of significant size.), some things might be more widely known ("the famous champion X is rumored to be here") et al.

One could make a case for money making a difference, but only within limits, and perhaps based on dominion and unrest -- a province that hates its ruler is more likely to help potential invaders, especially if they worship that invader's pretender.

Information about province conditions would make some sense, but bear in mind that a province might be far larger than a battlefield, and that it could well have rather varying terrain within it. So, without finer detail in the movement system, it would be difficult to use terrain info to figure out where a likely battlefield would be and what it would be like. While more detailed movement could be a good thing, it would be a rather huge change I'd say; perhaps in a total rewrite, if then.

[Strategos]

Agree with you,taqwus!

fantasy strategy gaming should appeal to a wide range of people out there,including wargamers, fantasy readers, historical and military types.

Giving attention to this kind of detail in designing or modifying DOMs should broaden the game's appeal considerably.

and if it includes elements that make it possible for a broad spectrum of potential gamers and customers to say "this fits in with my conception of how these things would or could work" then you have the makings of a mega-clasic, like civilization.

personally, i view things from a historical/political perspective and each of the DOM features as the policy instruments of a decision-maker/taker/implementer

What makes DOM come alive for me are how closely it approximates certain real-life processes (ok, magic may or may not be real-life, but there are enough intangibles and variables in real life to place magic within a certain framework)

So, i look forward to DOM2!